# Date: 1903-12-03

117.
19105
F. I. DAN — V. I. LENIN.
3 XII 1903. [Geneva.]

Esteemed Comrade!

While considering itself sufficiently competent in the matter of "the formal and moral right to remove certain things from the account of what took place," the editorial board of the protocols of the League congress nevertheless deemed it necessary (as it did with regard to other interested comrades) to ascertain your opinion on the possibility of the appearance in print in abbreviated form of those passages of the protocols which concern you personally.

I consider it necessary to note that the question of the exclusion from print of those episodes in connection with the discussion of the matter of the editorial "troika,"1 which had an exclusively personal interest, was raised by the editorial board of the protocols only at the insistence of Central Committee member Hans, who asserted that he was acting in this matter in agreement with you.2

But now, when you in your letter express the opposite desire, the editorial board willingly accedes to it and will print the entire episode in exactly the form in which it is entered in the protocols of the congress, with a note to the effect that the question of arbitration between you and Comrade Martov has been settled by mutual explanations.

With comradely greetings,
F. Dan.

3, rue de la Servette*.

* On the reverse of the manuscript of this letter, Lenin wrote in his own hand: "Polin." — Ed.

F. I. DAN — V. I. LENIN

1 The question of the editorial "troika" at the Second Party Congress concerned the election of the Central Organ's editorial board consisting of three members, according to Lenin's proposal, which Martov had also agreed to before the congress. At the congress, Martov sharply dissociated himself from Lenin's proposal and decisively spoke in favor of preserving the editorial board in its former composition (the "sextet"). This question is discussed in greater detail, apart from the protocols of the Second Party Congress (1924 ed., pp. 304–307) and the protocols of the League congress (1904 ed., pp. 43–44, 50, 52–53, 64–66), in a number of the following documents "From the Epoch of the Split in the R.S.D.R.P.," published in previous Lenin Miscellanies: "Programme of the Second Forthcoming Congress of the Russian S.D.R.P.," Yu. O. Martov's remarks on Lenin's draft "Programme of the Congress," the outline of Lenin's speech at the 31st session of the congress, Lenin's letters to Kalmykova and Potresov, "An Account of the Second Congress of the Russian S.D.R.P." (Lenin Miscellany VI, documents 3, 4, 8 zh, 19, 25, 21, 22, pp. 60, 65, 142, 205, 252, 216, 231), Lenin's "unsubmitted statement" to the presidium of the League congress and his "unsent letter" to Lyadov (Lenin Miscellany VII, documents 70 and 80, pp. 172–178 and 222–227).

2 Dan's assertion that the question of censorship of the protocols of the League congress was raised by the editorial board "only at the insistence of Central Committee member Hans, who asserted that he was acting in this matter in agreement with you [with Lenin.—Ed.]" was a maneuver whose aim was to shift the initiative and responsibility in this matter onto the Central Committee, onto Lenin, and generally onto the supporters of the majority. G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, being among all the Central Committee members then abroad the most peacefully disposed toward the opposition, could of course in his private consultations with its representatives agree to the exclusion of certain passages from the text of the protocols of the League congress, but it is quite incredible that the very initiative of this proposal belonged exclusively to him, and that too with the knowledge and agreement of Lenin. N. K. Krupskaya, already after G. M. Krzhizhanovsky's departure, in a letter to the Central Committee of 10 December (below, document 127, p. 38), wrote that "the minority assiduously spread rumors to the effect that, supposedly, the majority wanted to conceal its conduct at the League congress, etc." Apparently, this assertion by Dan concerning the initiative of G. M. Krzhizhanovsky in the matter of censorship of the protocols of the League congress and concerning Lenin's agreement to it belonged to the number of such "rumors" of the minority.